Man Goes on Trial for Insanity after Converting to Judaism

In 1844 Warder Cresson, born a Philadelphia Quaker, became the first United States Consul to Jerusalem. While there, he fell in love with the Jewish faith and promoted the return of Jews to the land of Israel. Upon his return his family sued him for his estate claiming he was a lunatic for converting to Judaism. The trial was called a fight for American religious freedom. Upon his return to Jerusalem, Cresson remarried and continued his proto-Zionist activity. Hear Warder Cresson in his own words, news coverage of the trial and his connection to Moby Dick author Herman Melville and British writer William Makepeace Thackeray.

NOTES:

• The Key of David by Warder Cresson - Archive.org

• The Key of David by Warder Cresson - Text version from Jewish-American History Foundation

• Quaker, Shaker, Rabbi: Warder Cresson, The Story of a Philadelphia Mystic - Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

• The Fight for American Religious Freedom By Jerry Klinger

• Warder Cresson and the First Amendment - American History & Jewish History Blog

• The Mystery Convert of Jerusalem - Warder Cresson grave discovered in 2013

• America’s First Consul to Jerusalem - My Jewish Learning

• Dreams and Diplomacy in the Holy Land: American Consuls in Jerusalem in the 19th Century